america's obsession from cooking. so why don't we do it any more in more on the menu as we serve up another big helping of "the cycle." vice president joe biden this afternoon paying respect at a public memorial for mit police officer sean collier allegedly killed by the boston bombing suspect just days after last week's horrific marathon attack. >> student quoted as saying, he loved us. and we loved him. ity's not a surprise, james, that they may have loved him, but to love him because they knew he loved them. what a remarkable son. what a remarkable brother. >> meantime, this afternoon, there are conflicting reports about what the fbi was told

before april 15th and what the suspects were planning to do after april 15th. boston globe is reporting that russian officials repeatedly warned u.s. investigators about the older brother, tamerlan tsarnaev and this morning ray kelly denied reports that brothers planned to continue their reign of terror here in the big apple. >> he is there with four other individual. it may have been word to the effect of coming to party, in new york. >> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is here to sort it all out. pete, what do you know? >> i think that is the assessment of new york's officials that if they were going to new york, it was not to commit another bombing. this whole thing got started when the owner of the car jacked car said he thought he heard them while speaking a foreign language say, manhattan, indicating maybe they were going there. but what you heard the police commissioner seems to be the current assessment of that.

>> all right. pete williams in washington. thank you very much. >> okay. >> let's head across town to capitol hill where kelly o'donnell is following political reactions to the investigation. kelly, we do understand that all senators will have the opportunity to be briefed about boston tomorrow. what can you tell us about that angle? >> they have this meeting already scheduled. they do it periodically where they give senators insights on classified material from the administration. and so this is an opportunity now to focus it on boston. we're hearing from a number of senators we talked to in the hallways and so forth who say they are getting a good level of informing coming from the fbi and obama administration at this point. there are things we are learning in classified settings they can't talk about publicly yet. but there has been some dispute today about whether or not the fbi had been contacted by russian authority more than once. there may be some terminology that is confusing that or perhaps there's other reporting.

but in talking with dianne feinstein, chairman of the senate intelligence committee and has perhaps the greatest access to information, she is saying that to her understanding, it was only once by the fbi and there are some indications and pete is reporting that the cia had been contacted. when you hear that russian government contacted the u.s. government more than once about tamerlan tsarnaev, it may be different agencies involved. there are questions we are hearing from republican members wanting to know more about what nbi may have known when the suspect who is now deceased came back from russia after a six-month trip. questions about, was there any way that more information might have been available. in talking to other senators, they point out that they get like 20,000 tips to the intelligence community that get rundown about these various potential suspects or people to watch for. senator feinstein also said that tamerlan tsarnaev was on a watch list but he fell off that list

because if after a year, there was no reason to suspect the person, they drop off the list. so those are some of the details we are hearing in conversations. >> and kelly, that sound like the substantive inquiry. what about the temperature? would you say people on the hill or generally respectfully proceeding now? or is there a temperature raising and concerns about whether we knew everything we could have known in advance? >> well, the sense i get right now is that there isn't an elevated level of anger or hostility. now we did see on the house side some more heated conversations and typically, when you're looking at the capitol, the heat tend to come from the house side and it tend to be more measured on the senate side when there are big issues like this. but i talked to both republicans and democrat senators who feel that the information flow is going well. they plan to have hearings. there are things that need to be explored but at least right now there a sense that they are getting the latest and feeling like there is cooperation which is always something they look

for. and a briefing like tomorrow might yield more information. >> kelly o'donnell on capitol hill. thank you. now how does the fbi track someone with no direct efd thvi that this person is becoming a terrorist. that may be the biggest question in the aftermath of the boston attacks. to help us unpack that and other issues is democrat from kentucky. thanks for being here. >> sure. good to be with you. >> just generally as we talk to kelly, what is your sense of whether this terrible attack on the united states is going to effect policy making and the legislative agenda on the hill. is that happening or not? >> i think there are a few members of congress including senator rand paul who are trying to use this as a political way of kind of just advancing their opposition to immigration reform. but you know, i think this case, most people feel this case actually reinforces the need for comprehensive immigration reform so we know exactly who is in the country. we know everybody here in the

country has a legitimate purpose for being here. and also, the problems that we have with immigration, with our system, don't go away. we still have 11 million undocumented resident here. we don't know who they are or what they are doing. we still are on border security issue. we still have employers employing illegal resident and we still have a great need for workers, both in agriculture and in high schooled industry. so those problems don't go away. we need to deal with them but most importantly, if we delay immigration reform now, we will be more unsafe and we're not going to be any safer. >> i think that's absolutely right. you mentioned rand paul putting the brakes on immigration reform. even though paul is predicting 70 vote, we can move forward. but why do you think your state rand paul is trying to put the brakes on this right new because of what happened in boston? >> rand paul is a friend of

mine. i like him. but he is obviously running for president in 2016. and he is trying to get as much as -- >> breaking news. >> get as much camera time as he can. >> well, congressman, shift back a little off that subject for a secretar second. if you agree or disagree, about the level of information they've been getting, some expressed frustration over not feeling like they've been updated properly or have access to the kind of information out of law enforcement and out of the white house that they would like on the bombing in boston. where are you on that? >> well, i think we are getting a lot of information. you know, one of the problems we face in today's world is there is so much information coming from so many directions. a lot of it is very lightly based or not -- it is totally unfounded. so i think the fbi needs to be

somewhat careful. they've got a lot of things to sift through. i'm sure, you know, there are thousands and thousandis of phone records that the fbi will have to deal with and you know, i think the other thing we have to recognize is the fbi had their budget cut significantly over the last couple years, $520 million, and that's before the sequestration cuts. we have to cut them slack because they are dealing with issues with reduced resources. >> congressman, as you point out, it is good and natural we good through the time line here. we look at how the fbi and potentially cia information they received from russia. but based on what we heard from pete williams and kelly o'donnell, so far it seems like protocol was followed. he was place owned a watch list. they checked him out. a year later, we don't know what is in his heart or on his mind. isn't it possible that

everything was done right and still we face this kind of a tragedy? >> yeah, great surprise. i think we are all are aware that no matter how effective our security apparatus is, that there will be people who slip through the cracks. we have had a phenomenal record since 9/11. and i think there's a very good chance this is one of those things. clearly all of the evidence is right now, they act aid lone. they radicalized on their own. they got this information on bomb building out of a magazine that's readily available and didn't have any help. so until there's any information to the contrary, i think we have to say this is really bad luck. and face that these two guys were pretty smart guys. academically successful and i mean, these weren't -- these weren't basically some idiots trying to do something. keystone cops. these were, i think, pretty intelligent young men. >> thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> and rand paul is not the only one thinking about 2016.

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you know the saying, everything is bigger in texas. well, political pundits would like to think that about what is happening in dallas this afternoon. hillary clinton and jeb bush are both giving speeches in the same city. and the only two people that may not grasp the political

implications of this day or hillary clinton and jeb bush. >> they probably do. >> we also do. we will talk about it. >> so you know, jeb versus hillary is one of the potential matchups thrown out there for 2016. one aspect is, is jeb bush still hindered by his brother? by being a bush? and frankly, i don't think that's his biggest problem. he is so -- he feels very different from his brother, from the way he looks to the way he talks to the way he approaches issues. i don't see that as being his problem. but i do see in the primary, if republicans are looking for a moderate, effective republican governor, with a broad appeal, i think chris christie is a much better option for them. and i think stylistically he has this brash charisma that republicans gravitate to. so he can gloss over and charm his way, frankly, charm is a strange word to use, and some of this policy, people like him.

they like his direct style and i think he is a more skilled politician and would be able to gloss over those problems and if he makes it to the primary, he would get demolished by hillary in the general election. i think that's pretty clear. >> i like the last part of that math, i agree with that. but i don't agree with chris christie or jeb with a serious chance in the primary. chris christie is a pro gun control guy. as republicans go, that's a disqualifying issue in that group. neither of them are conservative enough for the party. nate silverston did a poll of the majors in the this group. look at chris christie. he is an outlier with 9. jeb bush is 37. of the average -- average conservative republican right new is 38. mark why rubio is very close to

them. you go up to rand paul at 65. i think rubio is more likely to perhaps come out of this group more relatively moderate it that group, if you throw out chris christie as outlier. in the turnout elections, where you have to excite your base and maybe scare them about the other side, someone like marco rubio is more able to do that than chris christie. >> i don't know that gop is moving ever right word. i think obvious shifts on immigration, guy marriage, show there's room among conservatives to in fact move to the middle. but i think the problem for jeb is that, what's interesting is that jeb bush and hillary clinton are similar in that they're not new people, right? they've been around for decade. they are former political leaders. she was first lady in the '90s. she was senator. she was secretary of state, obviously.

and both because of that and their name id, their name id, their recognition -- >> oh, last name is clinton. oh. ooooohhh. >> these people are not new to us. however, in a 2016 match-up, jeb bush would be the throw back guy, right? and hillary clinton would be packaged as the promise of something new, of change. we can run that campaign as conservatives. we can run the campaign of, we need to go back to conservative values, tradition, conservative stability. we can do that with jeb. but we ran that campaign in 2008. and i don't think that worked. and against a change candidate, i think we need another change candidate. if we learned anything from 200

8. so jeb bush, not a changed candida candidate. that would be someone like rubio, maybe chris christie. we need to meet change with change. >> i don't know about 2016, but i think both these figures are playing a rl in the undertow of the pressures on policies with their respective parties. hillary, after being out of politics as secretary of state, not able to o go to conventions or issues, one of the first things she did is try to to come in and join the chorus of people saying we need marriage equality. a lot of national democrats have all over the map. i think she was late but couldn't have been early, given her position. that an interesting and positive role for her to play. jeb bush is on the policy, much closely aligned to, and that is immigration reform. >> that his thing. >> that's his thing. other people welcomed his voice because he was for simplifying but basically a moderately progressive path to citizenship.

then he writes a hole book about it and back tracks from the one plank of the policy he had been holding. i don't trust jeb bush. i think if you are watching at home, you shouldn't watch jeb bush. this is a test, a sign. whether it is for 2016 or anything else, all i know is he changed policy. he comes out with a book back tracking. and it looks like an appeal not to the heart of the republican party, which is you pointed out on this issue, is evolving. is looking for people like rubio to make change. no, he seems to be appealing to some notion of what the average iowa republican or fox news republican might want. i think that a shame. i think he is degenerating. >> he is sort of caught in the middle. that establish says we need immigration reform, we need to put hispanics and latino into the tent. a lot of the media elites are still not on the page. he is caught in the middle. >> we talked about this before if you remember. some of it was just sort of bad

timing. i think when he released this book, he was expecting the conversation on immigration to be in a different place. he didn't know how fast it was going to move. i don't know over the next cupping months and years, if he will address that weirdness. that awkwardness in his change of message. maybe he can do that in way that inoculate in 2016 against another conversation about it. but if immigration is not his big issue -- >> what's he going to do. >> and his education, that's an important issue, that's not a reason people will go to the polls in 2016. >> he doesn't have enough of a difference on education from either his republican opponent or frankly hillary clinton to really make that plank that as you're indicating and i think the big problem in putting immigration, actual substance of the policy aside, is his maneuver felt like it was politically calculated. it. >> right. >> it felt like it was not exactly what he believed that he was trying to time it right and found himself not in the right

position. and it also shows a bit of a lack of political deafness in anticipating where that conversation would go. >> yeah. >> up next, the other part of this story, the legacy of one george w. bush. on the eve of the dedication of his presidential center. we talk about a bush come back. take deep breaths. ity it's going to be all right. we have much more on "the cycle." we've all had those moments.

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. tomorrow president george w. bush steps back into the spot lot for the first time in a long time to dedicate his presidential library. along side him will be his father, george h.w. bush, jimmy carter, bill clinton and president obama. first lady laura bush shared what her husband hoped the center will stand for.

>> george did not want this to be a monument to himself. he said that from the very beginning. because he thinks that if it's based on one personality, it becomes less an less relevant over time. but if it is based on the principles that we believe are the most important for our country then it can stay relevant. >> this comes as a new poll shows the public with a kinder gentler view of the president four years after he left office. in october 2008, 23% approval rating than when he left in '09, the lowest of any departing press since nixon. now nearly 47% of americans approve of w's performance, saying absence makes the hard grow fonder. apparently. not this heart. but let's bring in joan walsh, "salon"'s editor at large. so joan, you talk about how the

separation here with make the heart grow fonder, right? and clearly then the numbers back it up it a certain point but i was struck by the fact we are watching a president obama right now handling terrorism, going after our threats that we face but also paying great attention to our constitutional and legal obligations. and i feel with less panic and less talk about fear and terror alerts. isn't there a cannot trast alert for people to be reminded of george w. bush and not go back to the way he handled a similar conflict? >> i'm not sure people are comparing them side by side. but i think the numbers show the stimulus worked. it didn't do everything it needed to but took people out of the misery they were in, a lot of people. he has kept us safe. this bombing is an unfortunate blip but in general he's done all the things you said. and people, the country doesn't have to sense of siege it had in

2008, early 2009. i think president bush should thank president obama tomorrow when he sees him because it let people sort of have the luxury of saying, oh, he wasn't such a bad guy and we don't like it hate our president. outside of a fringe, maybe on both sides, americans don't want it hate their presidents. they want to admire their presidents. so they do go ups in esseem to leef /* /- esteem. >> i think the congress recognize if the way it went with democrats in 1964 then it'll be a long time before they get back into the white house. they know that. for all george bush did wrong and there were many, many things, he was inclusive of

hispanics, why do you think george bush was so inclusive of hispanics and able to get a lot of their votes. and why has the republican party gone so wrong since then? >> he was texas governor. he and karl rove are not stupid. they saw the future of texas and they saw that hispanics and latinos would have a huge future. i think they had a comfort level. even in california in the '80s we talked about latinos could go either way. both parties had a claim on them. pete wilson drove latinos away by demagoguing the issue and saying they are coming over our boarder and want our services. rather than looking for work, they are wanting our services. so the latinos said, okay, you don't want us in your party? we'll good to the other party.

some people, some republicans are using the boston bombing to slow down and maybe stop immigration reform. it is very ignorant and bad for republicans. >> i want to talk to you, joan, about a piece you wrote about the boston bombing, asking the question, are the tsarnaevs white? it is interesting we are even having this conversation. there are thoughts on the subject, let's take a listen. >> the more we learn about these guys, the hardest it is to get a handle on them. >> we know they are chechen-american. >> but that doesn't help us at all. for americans, chechnya may as well be a suburb of narnia. for 12 years merians have been cold a nice little story about who the bad guys are and what they look like. then here come these two. muslim but white. immigrants but americans.

athletes but stoners. tamerlan is kind of a hotty. >> we are spending all this brain power trying to figure out what sort of racial ethnic box we can put these guys into. why is that important? why is it so hard for us to figure them out? >> in the end, it is not important. i think this whole discussion proves that once again is that race is entirely a political and social construct and that we have always had a battle over who is white. irish were considered white. people have to prove their whiteness over time. i think this way of thinking is dying bekind of having a last gasp. we don't want to acknowledge that these boys have as much in common with you know, timothy mcveigh and more, actually more to the point, with school shooters, the columbine killers, james holmes, than really with hardened jihadists.

they are a product of alienation that led them to hodgepodge mitched up i mixed up ideas. >> you talk about david sirota column, let's hope the boston marathon bomber is a white american. and waiting a mere 30 hours toant here in conversation about race and politics after the bombings. but you both seem to suggest there is a need for conservatives to pin these kinds of moments on nonwhites. but surely, surely, joan, you have to also admit that there is a need among liberals to pin these kind of attacks on white right wingers. i could show you tweetes from our friend, michael moore, or

some folks on npr suggesting that hitler's birthday was big for the reich in the hours of the bombing. david axelrod saying the president was focused on tax day. surely you have to find equal problem with that as well. >> well, i couldn't know if i find equal problem with it. i will say, i can't take any credit or blame for what david wrote or what michael moore said. i think david's bottom line is also my bottom line. the reason your mind might go there is because if it is a white american, whites are not pro filed the way other groups are. we have one of our many privileges is we are just individuals. those are crazy nuts over there. we don't have it answer for them. when it is not a white person, if it were an african-american or latino or in this case they are muslim. so some people decide that's not white. then you do crazy thanks. then you have people saying, we

shouldn't allow muslims to immigrate here at all. then there is profiling and prejudice -- >> but with the paranoia and prejudice is also on the left by folks like david sirota. >> i don't see it that way. maybe it would be a different conversation if this person was a white right winger. but all we can see is what we have here. in that sense david is right. there is too much profiling. too much prejudice. too much nonsense about what these boys mean and it wouldn't be happening quite the same way had they been white. >> amen, joan. thank you for speaking out on those issues. >> thanks for having me. >> like we mentioned, the official dedication of the bush presidential center is tomorrow in dallas. msnbc will have live coverage starting tomorrow morning with chuck todd. then the ceremony. and on through to "the cycle" which will be the highlight of

your tv day. every living president will be in attendance for the festivities. would you go, if you could? morgan wright said quote, i would love to be there to see president obama, clinton and carter in person. don't want it see bush. >> morgan, i agree. one of the most exclusive clubs. >> next up, can indefensive food change the conversation about the way we eat? now michael pollen is here to tell us about his new book "cooked" and i am hungry, sir.

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campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. so what did you do for dinner last note? whip up a bowl of pasta? toss some burgers on the grill? pull out a frozen pizza? >> yes. >> or order take-out. for millions of american, that is dinner. but is it cooking? when we are crunched for time at

the end of the day we miss out on the benefits of cooking and those benefits reach far beyond our medical health. from the whole hog barbecue pits, to the raw milk cheese beet, pollen gets back it basics of cooking to explore the missing link in the food chain. how we transform plants and animals into meals, why? pollan breaks it down into four areas. fire, water, the third, air, might need more explanation. pollan used the example of bread. 80% of bread is air. and finally, earth. bacteria and live cultures. it may not sound appetizing but how do you think our friends get that beer and cheese and prosciutto that we all love so much? well, from his brown breaking book about the food chain to

this new one, "cooked", michael pollan is here with us today, in the guest spot. >> i have to correct one thing. you said a connecticut nut and it is a connecticut nun. who taught me how to make cheese. in case she is watching. >> we saw the picture. clearly a nun. >> okay. i heard she is a bit of a nutty nun. >> no, she is actually a a macro b biologist and a cheese maker. >> can you come here daily and help me with my prompter. >> with all of the time we spend eating out is on balance, just a bad idea. that cavemen didn't need stair masters because they were able to work out throughout the day. but we have shifted to service economy, lot of processed foods. you point out like 80% of the sodium is just from eating out. if we cooked more, we would get less of it. what is that all about?

>> basically there are things about cooking that kind of automatically guarantee, if you are doing it, or another human is doing it for you, that you will eat really healthy. think about french fries. they are a pain to make. to make yourself. you will never do it more than a month or so because it is a big mess. you have to get rid of the oil. but corporations make it so efishn'tly and so easily, you can have them twice a day, which many americans do. so there is something built in to nature that will drive you to eating real food. the best thing about your diet is not the nutrient but who is cooking it. human being or corporation. >> you say women tend to prefer boiling and men tend to prefer brazing. what's the gender tendencies behind that? >> men love to grill. we have this great tradition of men outdoors, self dramatizing

it, making it seem complicated. which it's not. it is just fire and meat. and women say they can't do it because they want men to do something. >> well put. >> but a male thing going back to the old testament and beyond that with the rituals where men who were priests at the time and butchers and cooks, would make the meat. and making meat was an exciting public spectacle. where as cooking in pots is kind of everyday home cooking and that was women's work for a long time. one of the problems with cooking is that it was, you know, a ghetto for women, basically. and that's one of the reasons we fell away from it. so if we rebuild a culture of cooking, we have to get men back in the kitchen and kids as well. >> you remind me of a family story, i will share quickly. my oldest sister, when my mother was pregnant with my next oldest sister, was very concerned about who would feed her when my mom was in the hospital.

and she said, your dad will cook for you. and she said, but he can only cook outside. very much of what you are talking about. >> totally classic. >> i wanted to get your take on some sort of current policy developments that have happened. you mentioned briefly in your book, going to visit the man who is the pit barbecuener north carolina and driving past the huge farms, live stock farms. and you say that it was a place you won't soon forget. a deep circle of porcine held that stench and shrieking squeals. >> and farms -- >> and applying for a job

without disclosing affiliation you have with animal rights groups, what is the impact of these kinds of laws in. >> they are trying to criminalize whistleblowing and make it very difficult to do journalism about alary culture. which they are already doing. if you want to get into places where your food is produced, you can't. they will turn you away over and over again. it seems to me, we have a right to know how our food is being produced. i can't imagine the laws are constitutional, they will survive that kind of scrutiny. we already have veggie libel laws, you remember when oprah was sued ten years ago. she made a comment on the air that crashed the beef market. she said she would never eat a hamburger again after learning how beef was produced. and the national cattleman's industry sued her for $10 million and she had to spend $1 million to defend herself. we should know whether it is genetically modified, whether it has additives. if you have personal choice to let the market decide, you need to give people the information they need to make good choices.

>> michael, before we let you know, if people are cooking less and watch tv with chefs cooking -- >> isn't that weird. there are more americans watching the food network than cook being for themselves. i think we are intimidated about cooking. one thing i would do is help fem fall ba tobacco cooking. -- i would like to help people fall back into cooking. >> the president dining with the ladies in the senate last night. what they talked about, what they are saying today and of course what they ate. we are back spinning next. we went out and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone

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dining with the ladies. the president hosted an all ladies senators meal pl the menu included alaskan halibut, from lisa murkowski who in the past urged the president to host such an affair. also served, peach pie. because peach pie is really, really good. other than details about the menu, which is all we care about, we haven't heard much about the closed-door dinner but

we are hearing the president urge ladies to help him cook up a budget compromise. let's face it, who is better than balancing than a group of women, am i right, krystal? >> hey. >> wow. >> hot in here. >> groan. no, i like the opportunity for, you know, women to come in and fix the country and everything is going to be a whole lot more civil and softer and easier and friendlier. actually, amy clubachar, had this to say. >> playing a role to get people here to avoid some of the things we are seeing right now with sequestration and to bring our debt down in a balanced way. >> wow, she is giving us a lot of credit as women.

we will fix everything. it silly and a narrow view of politics and to suggest this dinner with 20 women senators will solve all theseout. that the problem with washington is too much penis, essentially. there's just too much penis in washington and not enough uterus. i think that's really silly. frankly, also -- >> i want that bumper sticker. too much penis. not enough uterus. >> i'll make you one. it also reflects the fact women are just as capable of being ruthless, of making bad decisions. this is women. i can show you how women are. that's women. we can throw tables and use our stuff and get a little cooky. >> sure. >> i'm kind of over this story. >> actually -- >> before it's begun.

>> i feel that. no one dinner with the ladies is not going to solve all of washington's problems, obviously. but i do actually think a big part of the problem in washington is too many penises and not enough uteri. >> what? >> no. you can always point to an example of a woman who is not well liked or super partisan or doesn't work across the aisle. but if you look at the research as a whole, you do find that women tend to have a more collaborative approach. we talked about a study on this show from vanderbilt and uva that showed that women in the minority party in particular are much more effective than men in terms of the bills that they sponsor and the legislation that they actually pass. so in terms of the president looking for republicans that he can work with across the aisle, he could do a lot worse than forming a stronger relationship with the republican women in the senate. >> that's true. i'm glad that we're talking about diversity as silly and

presenting the real housewives. no, diversity is not silly. promoting gender diversity in congress, that would become, perhaps, just to a fraction of what it actually is in the real world, is actually extraordinarily important. to show real housewives of new jersey as endemmic of women is incredibly sexist. the political science has shown repeatedly women are more likely to cross the aisle and find consensus. it makes sense for the president to do this. this might become a consistent thing, president sitting down with women lawmakers. anything we can do to promote gender diversity and to help the women who make it to congress, we should definitely do. >> senator mccullsky -- i was struck at the time they were one of the only recuring automatically bipartisan meetings. that was an interesting sort of con glom rative benefit. >> because we're women.

>> having said that -- >> because we're women. >> you go. because you're a woman. i don't want to speak too much. but -- but the problem with those -- with those meetings was, you can't point to a lot of major legislation that emerged. and i am all for it. i think the systemic inequities in the congress are a problem. they're a problem on gender. they're a problem on race. they're a problem on class. because most of the senate are millionaires. but i think it's great that the president went to meet with the women's caucus. i think he should do it more. having said that, i think that sometimes the political class pays more attention to the idea of commenting and these people sitting down together than whether we can get things done. campaign finance reform, a legislative plan. i'm glad obama met with them but there's a lot more to be done, obviously. >> it was pie. pie solves everything. we'll be back with thoughts from our legal eagle. where cutting taxes for families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs,

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the defendant in the boston marathon bombing faces a wide range of potential charges from terrorism to resisting arrest. in the initial criminal complaint filed this week, prosecutors focused on just two crimes. deadly destruction of property and use of an explosive weapon. they can add more later. today, though, i want to look at that explosives charge because it's critical to our security and how we regulate weapons. it's a federal crime to possess explosives or traffic them or even distribute certain information about them. that's because there's basically no legitimate private way to use a bomb. you can't protect your house from an explosive unless you're willing to blow up the whole house. you can't defend yourself against an attacker with a grenade unless you're willing to murder bystanders in the

process. that's why congress has criminalized explosives. in 1994 it even bulked up the penalties for violent crimes committed with explosives. under that amendment, defendants are more likely to receive the federal death penalty for killing someone with a bomb rather than, say, with a knife or a car. that sliding scale fits a long standing feature of our criminal code. the justice system weighs the danger and motive associated with a given weapon. explosives are illegal because they're weapons for attack. not defense. they are designed and operated to assault, not defend. in plain english, they're assault weapons. so i'm going to take a small leap here and discuss how we should regulate similar weapons. each of the characteristics that i just discussed apply to the military style weapons that most democracies ban like machine guns, m-320 grenade launchers and ar-15s. those weapons like bombs don't belong on the streets.

because there are no legitimate uses for them. and just like explosives, they sacrifice precision for maximum impact. you don't need an ar-15 to hunt. no responsible gun owner wants an a. >> reporter: r-15 to repel intruders from his apartment. they were used to mow down the kids in newtown and murder people at that movie theater in aurora, colorado. we're going to hear a lot about security after boston. when we talk about public safety, to me, bombs and assault weapons are pretty much the same. don't let the nra or their friends in d.c. tell you any differently. that does it "the cycle." martin, it's all yours. >> it's april 24th. the fbi and ccia might want to get their stories straight and who knew what when about tamerlan na